CASCADE – A summer evening performance for a Montana rodeo fan is always good therapy.

It's needed more than usual for a little boy from Great Falls who was soaking it all in here Saturday night at the Cascade PRCA Rodeo.

Kyler James Streib, 4, has been fighting leukemia since he was born. His folks, Robert and Misty Streib of Great Falls, brought Kyler and his little sister Nevaeh to the Chestnut Valley Arena this night to enjoy the show. Robert has friends on the Cascade Rodeo Committee, and they helped make sure Kyler was mentioned by rodeo announcer Jeff Marn.

It's possible a benefit rodeo might be planned next month for the Streibs. If that's the case, what better place than Chestnut Valley?

"It's a pretty nice set-up," said Steve Streib of Boulder, Kyler and Nevaeh's grandfather. "This is only their second year, you know. It might take awhile to get it going, but this is a real good turnout."

Kyler was diagnosed at 17 months. His folks, said Steve, have lived in both Great Falls and Seattle, where the children's hospital is located, ever since. "We're in treatment now," said Robert. "I wanted to bring Kyler here and let some of the folks see him and meet him. This is a real nice spot and a very good turnout. It's a good deal."

Nevaeh, by the way, is heaven spelled backward. And on an August Saturday night that's exactly what it seemed like in the foothills of the Big Belt range about five miles southeast of Cascade. The grandstands were full with perhaps 1,000 fans as the second annual PRCA rodeo concluded.

Marn is from Belt, where they've had a flourishing pro rodeo for years. He's impressed with the effort he sees to turn Cascade into a rodeo town again.

"A new venue and you put it in a ranch setting like this and it just adds a extra feeling for everybody. I think it's just great," Marn said. "This is close to home and we all want to do everything we can to make it bigger and better every year."

Chris Wilson is the chairman of the committee behind the event. He said the evening's festivities made him proud.

"There's been an awful lot of work that's gone into the arena and the planning," Wilson said. "This whole committee has done a fantastic job. It's a brand-new arena. We built it from the ground up. It was just farm land.

"It's fantastic for the whole community. We had activities throughout the weekend. It really instills a sense of pride in the town."

Stock contractor John ES Smith produced the rodeo. He's a former Canadian champion and two-time qualifier for the National Finals Rodeo. The Chestnut Valley Arena is only a few hundred yards away from Smith's JS Rodeo Ranch.

And that made an old bronc rider feel pretty good Saturday night.

"It does," said Smith. "Anytime you can show off in front of your friends, and show them what we do is for real, it's kind of fun."

The event started Friday night with about 600 in the stands. There were few seats to be had for the final performance.

"It's pretty cool to have a pro rodeo right in your back yard," said Tyrell Smith, John's son and a former NFR Rodeo bronc rider in his own right. "This is really a strong showing of what a committee and a community can do when they work together well."

MEANWHILE, Saturday's performance started with a special "McClintock! Ranch Wild Bronc" Riding. Stealing a scene from the 1963 film starring John Wayne, six broncs and their riders, all ranch hands from various Cascade-area spreads, were released at once. The competition was a rousing success, with nary apparent injury, and judges scored the riders based on both how the ride looked and how the rider looked.

That's sort of the way it works in real rodeo, except this time several of the riders were pretty costumed up. Silas Clarke, riding for Western Sky Equine, was named the event winner. Old Silas was wearing a dress, but that didn't seem to bother the judges. He earned a $600 prize.

"It's pretty western," John ES Smith said. "We'd like to do it here every year."